Gaming is a popular adult pastime throughout the world. Gaming enterprises offer its gambling patrons numerous games of chance such as slot machines, poker machines, keno, dice and a variety of playing card games. One of the more popular playing card games is blackjack which is commonly referred to as "21". At a blackjack table, up to seven players have an opportunity to play cards against a card dealer. The object of blackjack is to obtain a numerical card value of twenty-one (21) or less, that is greater than the card dealer's numerical card value. Any blackjack player including the dealer whose numerical card value exceeds 21 automatically loses. When using a single deck of fifty-two (52) playing cards with a full table of blackjack players, the dealer is required to shuffle the deck after every one or two games of blackjack. Shuffling is disruptive to the game of blackjack and generates an element of boredom for the blackjack players because they must wait until the dealer completes shuffling of the cards before the next game of blackjack can begin. In an attempt to eliminate this aspect of boredom during blackjack, six (6) decks of playing cards to be dealt from a dealer shoe have been combined in order to increase the number of games of blackjack without shuffling. Although a six (6) deck blackjack game does reduce the number of shuffles for the dealer compared to a single deck, it now takes a dealer approximately three to five minutes to shuffle six (6) decks of playing cards after the playing cards are depleted from the shoe. Thus, even though the number of shuffles have dramatically decreased throughout the game of blackjack employing a six-deck (6) dealer shoe, the period of time required to shuffle six (6) decks of playing cards has substantially increased. This increased period of time to shuffle is disruptive and stints the blackjack game, thus creating a longer period of boredom for the blackjack players.
Additionally, a few unlucky blackjack players sometimes attribute their losses to the dealer because it is falsely believed that the dealer is intentionally manipulating cards in the deck to the players' disadvantage as it is being shuffled. Although untrue, the gaming establishments are aware of this fanciful notion and consider viable alternatives to dispel this myth in order to retain integrity in the game of blackjack and bolster the interest of all blackjack players to continue playing the game. In order to resolve these problems, i.e. player boredom during shuffling and the notion of manually manipulating the deck during shuffling, an automatic card shuffler device has been developed.
A single deck of cards is placed into the automatic card shuffler device which rests on its own stand proximate to the dealer and the blackjack table. While the dealer deals cards to the blackjack players with a separate deck of playing cards, the deck of playing cards within the automatic card shuffler device is being shuffled. The mechanism housed within the automatic shuffler device which drives the shuffling operations is delicate and complex. A wiper element cuts the single deck of playing cards into approximately equal stacks of unshuffled playing cards in a juxtaposed relationship. With a slight force, the mechanism urges the two stacks of unshuffled cards together along abutting ends. A probe having a conical end portion rises between the two stacks of unshuffled cards upwardly through their abutting ends. After slightly bending each stack of unshuffled cards, the playing cards return into their original flat configuration in an overlapped manner. The playing cards are then pushed together to form a single shuffled deck of cards. This process is repeated several times over a four or five minute period to assure thorough shuffling of the single deck of playing cards. After the dealer deals the shuffled deck of cards to the players, the cards are gathered and stacked into an unshuffled deck which is then exchanged for the shuffled one in the automatic card shuffler device. The game of blackjack can then immediately resume without boring the blackjack players with shuffling while eliminating any notion that the blackjack dealer is manipulating the cards during shuffling.
Indeed the automatic card shuffler device has eliminated the boredom for the players during shuffling and the notion of manually manipulating the playing cards. However, the automatic card shuffler device has adherent problems. First, the automatic card shuffler device is a sophisticated and delicate device which requires regular maintenance to avoid malfunction. Second, the automatic card shuffler device can only shuffle a single deck of playing cards at a time. Third, due to the complexity of the card shuffling operation, the automatic card shuffler device is slow to shuffle a single deck of playing cards. Fourth, the single deck card shuffler device is so large that another table is typically required for its use.
Therefore, a need exists in the gaming industry to provide a new and improved automatic card shuffler apparatus. One need includes a card shuffler apparatus which is technically simple and sufficiently compact for placement upon a card table. It would be an advantage to have a card shuffler apparatus which can shuffle either a single deck of playing cards or multiple decks of playing cards. It would be advantageous if the card shuffler apparatus could rapidly shuffle either a single deck or multiple decks of playing cards. The present invention addresses these needs and advantages.